Gloucestershire Golf Union
2025 Presidents Address
2025 Presidents Address
Oh what a fantastic year 2025 was; I thoroughly enjoyed my year as President, and I thank the Past Presidents for giving me the opportunity to do so. A special mention to Ian Hughes, my immediate predecessor, for his support, help and guidance throughout the year. I have met many wonderful people and seen much good golf as I travelled around the south of England and Wales supporting the many county teams; I visited the far tip of Cornwall four times, went west as far as Carmarthen, north to York, to Woodhall Spa in the east and Bournemouth in the south.
The various Gloucestershire Teams and individuals achieved many successes at home in Gloucestershire and away.
The Highlight of the year was obviously the SWCGA South West Week at Cumberwell Park where we won every trophy on offer and qualified for the England Golf County Finals by a magnificent 23 strokes in the strokeplay competition on Tuesday. Milan Reed became SW Amateur Champion and SW Youth Champion, the team won the matchplay trophy winning all their matches but one on the final day which was halved. Brandon Skidmore won the Clifford Burden Trophy presented to the player who has won most points in the match play competition.
Making things look good for the future at the SWCGA U14/U16 Team Championship held at Yeovil, Gloucestershire won the Team Trophy and there were outstanding performances from Felix Chippendale who won the U16 individual gross trophy and from Jack Lockwood who won the U14 individual gross trophy.
The U18 team played well and above expectations in their SWCGA Championship held at Perranporth but with virtually a completely new team from the previous year it was a tough ask and they narrowly failed to qualify for the EG Boys Finals.
The Seniors SWCGA Championship was held at Minehead where the team played well but were beaten by the strong Cornish side who qualified for the EG finals for the second consecutive year. There was some consolation with Matt Stanford becoming SW Seniors Champion.
My congratulations to Peter French and Jake Phillips who become Vice President and Captain respectively of the SWCGA during 2026.
The Junior Team Trophy was won by the team from Brickhampton Court who went on to represent Gloucestershire at the England Golf Finals held at Spalding. The final was played in glorious conditions with some extremely good scoring. The team acquitted themselves well but failed to be amongst the prizes.
The England Golf County Finals were held at St Enodoc, a wonderful course. On the first day the Gloucestershire Team lost narrowly, the final hole of the final match, to the eventual winners Leicestershire and Rutland when their player chipped in from off the green! We came back into the reckoning with a good win on the second day however Leicestershire and Rutland won all their matches to win the trophy for the first time in 99 years of trying.
The Gloucestershire County Champion, Nick Day; Seniors Champion, Mark Hall; Boys Champion, Ambrose Eaves are all invited to play in their England Golf Championships which were this year held on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa. Unfortunately Nick Day was unwell and unable to play. Mark and Ambrose enjoyed their competitions but were not among the prizes.
The England Golf Club Team Championship was held at The Oaks just outside York. Gloucestershire was represented by the team of Nick Day, Mike Day and Calum Mortimer who qualified by winning The Winterbotham Trophy at the Gloucestershire Mens County Championship. They came a very close second to the team from Lancashire who besides having some local knowledge played in the better conditions on a day when the Henbury team played in mostly torrential rain, I have seen greens squeegeed before but never tees! Nick Day recorded the lowest overall individual score in the competition.
The First Team did not get off to the best of starts in their Channel League when in their opening match of the season they lost away to Dorset 8-7 at Broadstone. However the team got back into winning ways and starting with Devon at The Warren whom they beat 8½ - 6½ did not look back with some stunning home and away wins and went on to win The Channel League again. My congratulations to Gary and all the first team squad.
The league is reorganised into two divisions of 4 teams for 2026 with all counties being played on a home and away basis followed by a play off between the league winners.
The second team had a disjointed season with a number of Wessex League matches either cancelled or rearranged including the cancellation of the Wessex Salver. Of the three WL matched played the squad lost the two away matches and won their one home match.
The 2025 Seniors squad had many new faces and a change of Captain, Tim Clink taking over from Nick Morris. The team enjoyed a mixed year narrowly failing to qualify for The Southern Counties Foursomes final, winning two of their Channel League matches, losing four and halving 1. The squad has a tremendous team spirit which will hopefully see them winning more matches in 2026.
The U18 team was virtually a new team, most members of the squad being U16’s in 2024. They had a tough year, winning one match in the Midlands Four Counties tournament and losing the other two. The Channel league matches were also difficult. The one bright spot was The SWCGA Boys Tournament where they played well and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the England Finals. It was a “Team Building Year”.
I have had the pleasure of being at this years (2026) U18 opening matches against the county first team and the GLCGA first team and on the basis of what I have seen believe they will be a much tougher team to beat this year than last. My best wishes for a successful year
The U16 team were in a similar position to the U18 team in that a significant proportion of the squad were U14’s in 2024. Again they had a tough year in 2025 losing all three of their Channel League games. Donard has moved to Spain and consequently has given up the U16 Team Manager role. I have taken on the role from 2026 forward and look forward to starting with a successful year. There has already been a highly promising training day at Cleeve Hill in 2026.
The U14 team play friendly matches against Worcestershire, Somerset and Glamorgan and a keenly contested match against the Gloucestershire Academy. Unfortunately the U14’s lost all their matches in 2025. Again my best wishes for a successful 2026.
My congratulations go to Jaxson Perry and Felix Chippendale who gained England International honours and to Ted Ballard who gained Welsh International honours.
My thanks to all those involved in running and coaching all of the Gloucestershire teams.
Coaches: Tom Motley (U18), James Tuck (U16), Tom Gillespie and Jamie McCormick (U14)
Team Managers: Gary Ward, Neil Tocknell, Alan Robinson, Ian James, Donard Duffy
I would also like to thank the many parents who give their time to transport their children to matches and for the support they give the teams
The County run many Championships and other competitions through the season, which this year included a new Handicap Championship. All, as usual ran well, my thanks to all involved in the running of our tournaments both on the day and in the background preparations leading to a successful day:
Dean Newbold, Championship Chair, Chris Boyle assisted by Chris Rew
Referees: Richard Palmer and his team of referees.
I would also like to thank those clubs and their members who give up their course allowing these tournaments to be run.
Also at this point I would like to mention, and thank, two seldom volunteers ; and Adrian Chandler our Course Rating Organiser and Carey Ashworth our Handicap Adviser.
My final Thank You is to Dean Newbold for all his help and support through my year and who has also now taken on the Performance role in addition to his Executive Secretary duties and provides the glue that brings everything together. During 2025 he was also heavily involved in the work necessary for The Gloucestershire Golf Union to become incorporated; we are now Gloucestershire Golf Union Limited.
At the recent AGM I was delighted to hand over the Presidency to Pat Murphy (The Kendleshire) and wish him a successful year ahead.
Pat was delighted to receive the honour from Richard and is looking forward to 2026.
Richard Salter 2025 President
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